New volunteer board president elected

Frederick M. Lione Jr. of Rowayton has been elected president of the Norwalk Hospital Volunteer Board.

Lione, who previously served as vice president, brings leadership and business experience having retired from a successful professional career that spanned 50 years in the commercial construction industry.

For the first 25 years, Lione was with the family firm of Vuono-Lione Inc., where he became president and worked with major area organizations in Fairfield County and beyond, including Pitney Bowes, Perkin Elmer, AMF and Schick Safety Razor.

"Our company constructed the Noroton Presbyterian Church, New Canaan Presbyterian Church, St. Clement's Church in Stamford, Wolfpit School in Norwalk, the Norwalk Jewish Community Center, among others," he said.

After he closed the family business in 1980, Lione became vice president of the Rockefeller Center Development Corporation in New York, part of the Rockefeller Group, where he supervised its construction projects throughout the United States.

"I got a great deal of satisfaction out of implementing the dreams and plans of many organizations, international and domestic," he said. "It also gave me insight into the workings of different companies and their distinct cultures." He later worked for the Museum of Modern Art in New York as one of the project managers for its most recent large-scale renovation and currently continues to help nonprofits with their construction projects on a pro bono basis.

Lione was born in Stamford and graduated from King School and Dartmouth College. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve.

He said had a life-changing experience 19 years ago.

"In March of 1993, I died," he said. "I was `paddled' by Norwalk Hospital EMTs and rushed to the Emergency Department. Obviously, it all worked out or I wouldn't be here. When I retired, I thought it was time to `give back,' particularly to Norwalk Hospital." He added, "And it makes me feel good to help people." Lione joined the Norwalk Hospital Volunteers six years ago as an ambassador volunteer on the telemetry unit. The ambassadors are a select group of volunteers that provide a service designed to make the patient's stay at as comfortable as possible. Ambassadors need to have excellent communication and listening skills and must uphold patient confidentiality.

In addition to being an ambassador, he is assigned as a volunteer in the Human Resources Department as well as the Flower for Patients Program and the monthly Volunteer Book Sales. His wife, Nancy, assists every week with the Flowers for Patients program.

In looking ahead to his role as president of the volunteer board, Lione said he feels the biggest challenge to the overall program and the volunteers is to adapt to the rapidly changing world of the "medical and health care business." "Ten years from now the volunteers will still be doing their thing but under entirely different circumstances," he added.